Often in working with clients I ask them what sort of advertising they have tried in the past and what has worked for them and what has not. Most organizations have at least tried advertising but not everyone has had success with it. When I listen to their experiences I often hear comments like “Yea, we tried this or that once but it didn’t work. Then we tried another advertising vehicle because the rep had what seemed like a really good deal at the time. It didn’t work out very well. I don’t think advertising is for us.
By using advertising in a hit or miss fashion what they were really doing was sending out messages about their organization in a hit and miss fashion. By changing the vehicles they advertised in they never achieved any continuity or consistency in their message. Often when they changed advertising vehicles they also had different messages or creative because the ad rep sold them on the idea that they could save money by having them design the ad for them. If the prospective customer even saw the ad they were often confused by getting a different or new message.
The average sale is made after five sales calls. The average sales person gives up after three sales calls. That is one reason there are so few superior sales people. It takes a special person who can hear the word no four times and keep gong in a happy positive frame of mind. If it takes five calls when you are talking and communicating with someone on the phone or in person, imagine how many times it might take to get them to change their behavior when all they see is an advertising message.
For people to change behavior they have to go through a series of education and understanding. Before they can learn and understand, they need to be aware that your product or services exist before they could possibly think about buying them. Awareness is where advertising starts to have an impact on your sales process. Simple awareness can make a sales call more effective. Rather than “Who are you? Where are you calling from? And what is it you want to sell me? You might actually hear something like “Oh Yea, I have seen your ads, that sounds like it might be worth taking a look at.” Sometimes awareness is the best you can hope for when you are dealing with complex products, but for simpler, easier to understand products, advertising can also actually lead to persuasion, and when combined with a call to action or special offer an actual sale.
This doesn´t happen over night and very rarely does it happen with one exposure to an advertisement. It may take two or three times before someone in your target audience even sees your ad, let alone reads it. The second time they actually pay attention to it, and the third time perhaps they will think about it. On the fourth or fifth time they may actually consider buying it.
To be effective your advertising needs be highly targeted to the appropriate audience. It needs to get to them at a time when your message will mean the most to them. The message should be consistent and focused on what you can do to help your customers solve a problem or make more money not just what you have a lot of to sell. Just because you may have seen your ad several times and are getting tired of it doesn’t mean your customers have even noticed it, let alone being tired of seeing or hearing it. Finally your message should have some sort of offer or call to action to get your prospects to contact you or change their buying behavior.
Think of your own kids or the neighbor kids or your relative’s kids you may have cared for. When you ask them to clean their room or ask them to do some other chore, do they jump right up and do it the first time you ask?
If you give them mixed messages or are not consistent in how you ask, you can sometimes actually be ignored or not even heard. Often you might have to ask three, four or more times to get them to finally get them to take action. These are people you already have a relationship with not strangers! Why would you expect anything more from your advertising?
About the Author – Scott Francis is President of Topline Development LLC a Strategic Marketing Consulting Group that provides helps companies determine how they can make the most amount of money with the least amount of resources. To learn more about Topline Development LLC visit their web site at www.ToplineDevelopment.com or contact Scott directly at scott@toplinedevelopment.com. |
